Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Vs. JNJ, PFE, LLY, ABBV, BMY, ZTS, HZNP, RPRX, JAZZ, and PRGO
Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), Eli Lilly and (LLY), AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Zoetis (ZTS), Horizon Therapeutics Public (HZNP), Royalty Pharma (RPRX), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), and Perrigo (PRGO). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceuticals" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. vs.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.
Pfizer has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Pfizer pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Pfizer pays out 70.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 43.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Pfizer has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Pfizer is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Pfizer currently has a consensus price target of $44.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.49%. Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus price target of $93.31, suggesting a potential upside of 20.95%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Merck & Co., Inc. is more favorable than Pfizer.
Pfizer has a net margin of 23.06% compared to Merck & Co., Inc.'s net margin of 11.48%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 50.93% beat Pfizer's return on equity.
64.9% of Pfizer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.8% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Pfizer shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Pfizer received 547 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.52% of users gave Pfizer an outperform vote while only 67.43% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Pfizer had 39 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 56 mentions for Pfizer and 17 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.24 beat Pfizer's score of 0.24 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Pfizer has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pfizer, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Merck & Co., Inc. beats Pfizer on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment >-1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Skip ChartMerck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) vs. Its Competitors
Merck & Co., Inc. Competitors List
